Pump Frequency Allocation and Dispersion Effect on Dual-Pump Phase Sensitive Amplifier Gain Spectrum

Dual-pump fiber optical parametric amplifiers offer wide, flat gain spectra across arbitrary wavelengths, often outperforming the use of single-pump designs. However, gain flatness depends on the pump frequencies’ center of gravity relative to the nonlinear fiber’s zero-dispersion wavelength. This study experimentally investigated the gain, gain flatness, and noise figure of degenerate dual-pump fiber-optic phase-sensitive amplification at various separations between these points. We demonstrated 38 dB gain with 1.5 dB gain flatness variation over a 30 nm bandwidth as well as a noise figure below the conventional 3 dB quantum limit for a degenerate signal.